Worlds of Reference

Tom McArthur author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:14th Apr '88

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

This paperback is available in another edition too:

Worlds of Reference cover

Worlds of Reference is a history of dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference materials.

Worlds of Reference is a history of dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference materials, but it is also far more than that, because it is concerned with the growth of civilisation, education and culture - and particularly how the human race learned to store information beyond the brain.Worlds of Reference is a history of dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference materials, but it is also far more than that, because it is concerned with the growth of civilisation, education and culture - and particularly how the human race learned to store information beyond the brain. It looks at how our species moved from being able to communicate only orally and to store information only in the head (rote memorisation) to the evolution of technologies for external reference: clay- and cunieform, reed-and-hieroglyph, bamboo-and-ideogram, parchment-and-alphabet, codices, books, pages, columns and so forth through the print revolution to the current electronic revolution. Along the way it looks at how this has affected languages like Latin, french, and English and people's attitudes to those languages - and to words and the listing of information about words. This intensely human subject is as compelling and important today as any account of kings, queens, wars and social upheaval.

ISBN: 9780521314039

Dimensions: 232mm x 156mm x 5mm

Weight: 800g

244 pages